Updated with data from a new review of studies looking at impacts of corvid removal on other birds.

A comment I occasionally hear, especially while conducting my research in neighborhoods is, “Ugh, I hate the crows. All of a sudden we have tons of crows and they’ve scared off all our songbirds!” This comment always pains me, but I understand that for most people it arises from a genuine concern for songbird abundance and conservation. First off, as a reminder crows are songbirds themselves; ravens are our biggest songbird. Semantics aside, I understand that there are many, many bird lovers who just can’t get on the crow bandwagon and when they talk about wanting songbirds at their feeders they mean chickadees, juncos, grosbeaks, etc. They feel that since the “arrival” of the crows their observations of these other birds have diminished. So is there anything to this? Do crows indeed drive down populations of small, “desirable” backyard birds?